This invention relates to an apparatus for developing exposed films, and particularly X-ray films or plates as used in the dental field.
Radiographic plates for diagnostic purposes are currently widely employed in modern odontoiatrics, thereby any dental ambulatory is expected to include laboratory and equipment facilities for the development of tooth radiographs, which are usually obtained with periapical plates of standardized design. However, this often poses serious difficulties to many such ambulatories, including space problems, since a suitable room must be specially reserved for these facilities, as well as personnel problems, since a skilled person is to be put in charge of them. To obviate such shortcomings, some apparata have been proposed for automatically developing radiographic plates in particular. While these apparata did contribute positively to the art, by making the operator's task a less harduous one, and one that may be performed by the dentist himself or his assistant, although to the detriment of their more specifically medical availability, they still leave much to be desired under several aspects. The majority of such apparata still require a dark room, as they are not designed for operation in a lighted environment.
Those prior art apparata which happen to be suitable for operation in a lighted room have some problems with the insertion of the plates, and generally make use of dark sleeves wherethrough the plate can be manually released from its case or wrapping and directly introduced into the first stage of the developing process. Furthermore, the consumption of acid and developing agent is generally rather high, and the danger exists that the treatment baths may damage the mechanical components through inadvertent spilling, overflows or splashes, or through the action of their fumes.